Lawsuit says Probation Department was run like “boys club”

A 20-year veteran of Hamilton County’s probation
department says she was denied a promotion after advising another woman
to file a sexual-harassment claim against a boss on the county’s payroll
at the time. Cassandra (Casey) DeNoma’s sex-discrimination lawsuit was
filed Friday in Cincinnati federal court. She
described the county probation department as a male bastion where
female probation officers are treated as second-class workers and that
she suffered retaliation “for opposing discrimination and encouraging
others to exercise their right to be free from acts of discrimination.”
The probation department is controlled by the county’s judges and
supervises offenders who are not sent to jail after being convicted of
committing crimes. This year, the probation department has a $6.7
million budget, including a $1.7 million state grant that is supposed to
save money by keeping people under local supervision rather than
sending them off to prison.
DeNoma, who is supervisor of the county’s Intensive
Supervised Probation unit that operates under the state grant, claims
she hit a glass ceiling when she applied to become No. 2 under former
Court Administrator Mike Walton, who recently retired. Walton had been
in charge of the probation department. Said DeNoma:
“Under Walton’s command, the probation department has
strongly resembled a ‘boys club’ in that preferential treatment is given
to men in appointments, assignments, and work conditions. For instance,
male supervisors are granted unrestricted access to the department’s
computer sites; females are not. Male supervisors are also permitted to
dress less formally and are provided larger badges than females to
reflect their positions and level of authority within the department.”
DeNoma said she was treated less favorably than men and
claimed that she was excluded from meetings and shut out of strategy
sessions. She said she could not get performance evaluations of herself,
while men did. She said that she advised another probation officer to
file a sex-harassment claim against a superior “whose behavior had
escalated to a point where she feared him.” DeNoma contends she was
passed over for promotion to assistant chief probation officer due to
her involvement in the sex-harassment matter.
The lawsuit is Cassandra DeNoma v. Hamilton County, Case No. 1:12cv831.
County officials have not yet had time to respond to the allegations.
The case seeks a judgment forcing the county to appoint DeNoma assistant
chief of the probation department. It also seeks economic damages, plus
punitive damages to be awarded at trial. DeNoma is represented by
Cincinnati lawyers Marc D. Mezibov and Susan L. Butler.